Vickiana — Ana Victoria García Pérez, born in Santiago de los Caballeros on 15 July 1958 — is a Dominican singer, vedette and television presenter, and the defining female soloist of Dominican popular music in the 1980s. She won the singer category at the first «Premios Casandra» in 1985, over Olga Lara and Anthony Ríos, and three decades later received the «Soberano al Mérito» on the same night as Lara, her rival for most of that time.

From Tamboril to Providence

She was raised by her grandparents in Tamboril, in Santiago province, and married at seventeen. A spell in Providence, Rhode Island, working in a factory, left her speaking Portuguese before she came back to record. She was earning her living as a seamstress when Luis Martínez Diloné, later her manager, discovered her at the end of the 1970s, and her professional debut came on «Fiesta», on «Tele Antillas». Her first single was «Besarte y amarte», which he wrote and credited to her, backed with Nelson Ned’s «Yo quisiera vivir».

The eighties

«Jardín prohibido» (1981), «Te invito» (1983) and «Derríteme» (1985) made her one of the very few female soloists at the top of the Dominican charts; the backing vocals on the last of them were sung by the leader of Juan Luis Guerra 4.40, then barely known. In 1982 she represented the Dominican Republic at the «Festival Internacional de la Canción de Puerto Rico» with «Un amante así», by Cheo Zorrilla. Her staged shows — «Vickiana en grande», «Sensualísima 87», «La Cenicienta», «Seducción», «Mujer de fuego» — drew record crowds to the Estadio Olímpico, and the director Jean Louis Jorge made the television special «Yo soy Vickiana» with her in 1985. She took the act to Madison Square Garden, the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in Puerto Rico and the Teatro Apolo in Madrid, and onto «Siempre en domingo», «Sábado gigante», «Sábado Sensacional» and «El show de Cristina».

Olga Lara

The rivalry with Olga Lara was conducted in public and in slogans: Lara’s was «Olga Lara es otra cosa», and Vickiana answered with «Vickiana no es cualquier cosa». The first «Premios Casandra», held on 15 April 1985 at the Cine Olimpia, set them against each other in the singer category, with Anthony Ríos as the third nominee, and Vickiana won. It took thirty years to get the two on one stage: at the «Premios Soberano» ceremony of 14 April 2015, «ACROARTE» gave the two of them the «Soberano al Mérito» together.

Other directions

In 1985 she recorded with Luis "Terror" Días and «Transporte Urbano»; the sessions stayed on the shelf until 2000, when they were issued as «Vickiana: las sesiones del 1985». Her «Mi amor sin ti» was used in the 1991 Hollywood film «One Good Cop». She represented the country again at the «Festival OTI» of 1990, in Las Vegas, with «Yo», by José Antonio Rodríguez. The albums continued through «Vickiana II» (1990), «Más que amor» (1991), «Vickiana III» (1994), «Amargada» (1995), «Infiel» (1998) and «En calor» (2000), and the duets crossed genres: «Te perdono», a bachata with Luis Segura; «Aún vivo para el amor» with Fernando Casado; and «Canto paz y un mundo nuevo», alongside Xiomara Fortuna, Sonia Silvestre, Miriam Cruz and Patricia Pereyra. When the arranger Bertico Sosa was honoured in concert, she was one of the singers who performed his own arrangements back to him, with Olga Lara and Fernando Villalona.

Television and film

In July 2009 she launched «Vickiana, lo prohibido», an erotic-themed programme that drew heavy criticism in the Dominican press for its sexual content, above all after an October 2009 episode that became a public scandal. She has also acted in film: a brief appearance in «Perico ripiao» (2003), a fortune-teller in «La hija natural» (2011), and later «Hay un país en el mundo» (2017) and «Nubarrones malva» (2022).

Legacy

Vickiana was one of the very few women to headline Dominican popular music as a soloist in the 1980s, filling the Estadio Olímpico at the height of her rivalry with Olga Lara. The journalist Rafael Molina Morillo included her in his book «Personalidades dominicanas». In 2026, her forty-fifth year on stage, she is still recording; her most recent single is «De pie».